Here's a pic .... shower is to the right behind the door - you can see the gold trim for the shower in the mirror.. I will get others.

Note this is from another house of the same model.

bump

Here’s a picture of the tub / shower.

Please let me know if any other information would be helpful. Thanks!

Probably gotta get a little personal to really give you good advice, how many people use the shower at one time? Ever more than one person? How old are you and how long do you think you'll live in this house (should it have a design that allows you to use it well into your 70's? Why do you not use the bathtub now? And why do you want to put in another tub if you don't use it? I'm guessing for resale and it'd look weird without one? What's your budget?

Is your WC wall at an angle with a little hidden space behind that wall? I'd square that up since you are gutting the bathroom anyway and it wouldn't be a difficult or expensive change.

I really like AJCN's layout. very spacious and smart. I also like drop in tubs for all the reasons Ajcn listed.

If you have enough storage with her layout, I would consider changing the storage between the tub and toilet closet to a bench. A bench is very handy to have in the bathroom and would keep the bathroom more open.

Your bathroom is so wide that it looks like you have something like 8 feet of space between your showering area and your vanity area. You could move the vanity more to the right, thus making your bathroom a little narrower. Use that extra space for the sound insulation you want. And/or you could use those inches for recessing medicine cabinets, recessing the storage tower a bit, or give the extra inches to your daughters room.

Your bathroom will still be wider than average and won't feel like it's too narrow. Looks like you have about 12" to work with there. May not be worth the $$ for those inches, but just wanted to mention that.

If you leave the size alone, you've got so much room in the middle that a nice round, upolstered pouf might be nice.

Make-up desk could also go on the adjacent wall if you don't want it in the middle of the vanity. You've got plenty of room there. It could be built in, or a pretty vintage or modern piece you find that you love.

Or instead, you could put a full-length wall mirror there.

Thank you all!

Greg, :) mostly it would only be a single person showering but we’d want it able to accommodate many... no, I’m kidding... 2 max :). I would like to stay in the house for many years. It will be paid off end of the year. Kids are in high school, starting college years this fall. I’m reading a lot about walk in showers but I’m not sure we’d need to go that route. It‘s an upstairs master. We have a full bath and den on the main level so may do something to accommodate aging when we redo that bathroom. Budget? I’d prefer to not consider budget yet but it will be enough for whatever I decide is worth it. :)

AJCN, thank you for all the ideas! It didn’t dawn on me to put the bathtub in that direction! I will mull that over! I do not use the makeup area. I quickly do makeup standing up. The bathroom is in fact very wide. I like the idea of thickening that vanity wall for soundproofing and in wall cabinets. Also that wall is not angled. I think that pic may have been a panoramic or something. The WC walls are square.

Karen, I will consider the bench when looking at these new ideas. Great idea!

As far as the tub, I just don’t have time to use a tub. We do have a bathtub/shower in the kids bathroom. I definitely want to keep it for resale. I was all set on the freestanding until I read all the pros/cons on this forum! Probably from you all! :). So I’m good with drop-in.

Thanks!

BTW thanks for the suggestion to use a local cabinetmaker. This is what I did for my kitchen but he’s no longer in business. I’d be looking in the Chicago area if anyone has any recommendations. Thanks!

Since you don’t use the make up counter you could put a towel bar on that adjacent wall or even a towel warmer if you’re in Chicago you might appreciate that. The other place a towel warmer could go would be on the toilet room wall facing the bathtub. It also looks like you have a little bit of room right outside of the shower door where you could put some hooks for towels if you want.

If you have a very professional and experienced painter (hopefully you do since it sounds like you’ve done some remodeling already), Maybe ask them for a reference to a custom Cabinet Builder. I hired a custom cabinet builder for my kitchen, but by the time I got around to redoing my master bathroom he had retired and moved away. But the painter who I’ve been using for years, and is a very experienced and skilled craftsmen in his own right, knew an excellent cabinet maker that he works with a lot. Painters see cabinet builders’ work in the raw. So they can tell who the good cabinet builders are.

You can absolutely turn the bathtub 90 degrees like you originally posted. Then you could have a more substantial amount of decking. I placed it like I did so that you could get a linen cabinet or put something else there. In your scenario I think your shower could be a bit longer. Good luck! And remember, the waterproofing is the most important part of the entire project. Don’t let the GC put an inexperienced tile “guy” on your job. Make sure the GC hires a certified tile professional and you get to meet with said pro before deciding which GC to hire.

Semi custom works too. I really liked Shiloh cabinets when I was doing the kitchen and almost did that before deciding on custom.

HJ-527663426, thanks! If there’s one thing that’s been drilled into my head on this forum is waterproofing:). I will definitely keep on top of that and did the same for our basement shower.

Ajcn,s plan is pretty good, I'd probably try to build a wall for a linen closet if it fits by window, you're limited of what you can do with the windows there. Make sure they are tempered btw. Do heated electric floors if you're in a cold climate, multihead shower, euro shower door, waterfall tub spout, maybe a fancy bidet toilet (add an outlet in wc). With these big tubs make sure you have the water heater capacity. If you build a 8" wall in between tub and shower (instead of glass) you can add lots of built in shelves instead of having your shampoo on the floor. Instead of teak bench, build a bench out of cinder blocks and quartz.

Thanks! Now how do I order that sunset?!

Having recently been through this exercise, I have a few thoughts.

First, do you really need a closed in toilet room? We opted for an alcove, which you could put behind your shower.

If you get a nice freestanding tub, put it where it will be seen.

Don't put the toilet where it will be visible from the entry or from the tub when bathing.

I would enlarge the entry door to the room and to the water closet. ADA requirements are 32"

I agree with numbersjunkie to reconsider the closed in toilet room. Having the room opened up with the toilet in the same location but slightly shielded by a pony wall or even some higher glass shelving would be a more spacious open look. Also, consider a pretty freestanding tub crosswise between the two windows? Have you considered a pocket door opening to the left at the entrance?

Also, instead of a vanity, consider a hardwired magnified makeup mirror to extend from the wall? I had the false front of the vanity (at the sink) mounted with hinges that allow it to extend open 180 degrees to use as a small vanity ledge occasionally where you could pull up a stool for those occasional times you want to sit and do your hair and makeup.

Thanks for the additional comments!

There really is no room to make the door wider as the 2 closets are adjacent to the bathroom (basically there is a short hall from the bedroom with walk-in closets on each side. The bathroom door is basically as wide as that hall will allow (given 3.5" trim on either side of the door).

I'm not sure about removing the water closet - guessing my husband would not approve :). However, I will not rule it out. I just would not want it to negatively affect resale down the road (all houses in the neighborhood have the water closet).

I actually have a vanity mirror attached to the wall from the previous owners - I really don't wear a lot of makeup so don't really use it. Mascara, blush, eye shadow - that's it!

I"m torn about the free-standing versus drop-in tub. I really love the look of the free-standing but I'm leaning towards the drop-in due to the various pros/cons listed in various threads.

Thanks!

Pocket door instead of standard door at the entrance of the bathroom?

Yes, thank you - I knew I'd miss something. Given that we aren't lacking space where the door would open, I"m not sure a pocket door is warranted? But maybe with an expanded shower... Will add this to the list of open questions!